The Flamingo Clay Studio was founded to address a critical lack within the Palm Beach County arts community.  Palm Beach County is the largest county within the nation east of the Mississippi River.  The population demographics range from extreme poverty to extreme wealth with huge populations of children and elderly at either end of the age spectrum.  The county is home to more than ninety cultural nationality entities.  Despite the population density and geographical vastness of the county, cultural resources for those most in need are sorely lacking.  The few art centers that exist (and there are only a few) have price points that only the upper middle class to the most wealthy can afford.  The scarcity of arts facilities for children means that very few communities have access to quality arts instruction for their children.  Artists working in three-dimensional works entirely lack sufficient, if any facilities within which to produce or finish works.  This narrative will address the gaps we see within this community and our detailed plan for addressing the issues through our not for profit educational arts organization.

The Flamingo Clay Studio’s mission is to provide affordable venues for artists, the arts, cultural and educational activities that serve the broad spectrum of Palm Beach County’s population.  To this end we have developed facilities that provide access for the creation of art, arts education, vocational training through the arts and fundraising through the arts for community needs. The mission is designed to serve the community at large providing the greatest public benefit possible. All of this will take place in an urban setting with an outreach designed to engage and include the most economically needy and disenfranchised within the community.  In addition, the facility will provide a space for the hundreds of artists within the county for whom there are few resources in which to create, display or sell their work.

Within any urban community the existence of a cultural presence enhances the community’s ability to resist and reverse blight and deterioration. Children within the community engaged in the arts find new purpose and focus.  School grades increase and incidences of criminal activity decrease.  Adult residents begin to value, respect and participate in their community.  Property values rise. The economic impact to downtown business areas reflects positive income flows.  Artists flocking to a community to work and to populate it by renting, buying and rehabilitating blighted areas help to raise the economic and social well being for all.  To this end The Flamingo Clay Studio has become an integral member of the local business district, the Palm Beach Cultural Council and participates in the activities of the Lake Worth CRA.